Practice FCE (B2) Listening Test 10 with Answers and Audioscripts

1 B   2 C   3 C   4 A

5 A   6 B   7 C   8 A

Audioscripts

1   You are visiting a friend when you hear him answer the telephone.

Hello, 776651 … Yes, speaking.. Yes, that’s right … It’s a Wattari 76C Gamemaster Deluxe and it’s never been used … erm, it was a present from an aunt in the States who doesn’t realise how old I am … Well, seeing as it’s totally new, I had intended to stick with the original price but let’s say 75 pounds.

2   You are sitting in an aeroplane when you hear this announcement.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly be crossing the Pyrenees mountain range where we have been warned to expect some quite severe turbulence. The seat-belt sign above your head is now on. Please return to your seats and remain there until the sign goes off. We will be altering our course to avoid the worst of the turbulence. However, we are fortunate in having a tail wind so we should still be arriving in Malaga five minutes ahead of schedule.

3   You have visited an English doctor because of a skin problem.

Well, there’s nothing really to worry about. I’m writing a prescription for a betadine ointment that you can get at any chemist. You can read English? … Oh, good. Anyway, the only other thing is … if you do decide to go out at all – I mean, out of the house – in the open air, especially in the daytime, just … er … take good care, and I’m sure you’ll be back to normal in a week or so.

4   While waiting to check in your luggage at an airport, you hear this conversation.

W = Woman     M = Man

W:   I’m terribly sorry, sir, these bags weigh 32 kilograms. That’s more than twice the normal baggage allowance for this flight.

M:   Ah, but I packed them very carefully. I put all the shampoo and things into smaller bottles, but … er … maybe it’s the golf clubs … they weigh quite a bit. Could I possibly take them as hand luggage?

W:   I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t think they’ll fit in the overhead lockers.

M:   Well, I guess I’ll just have to pay excess baggage then. How much is it please? … FADE

5   You are watching the weather forecast for Britain on TV.

… and moving on from the satellite picture we can see that tomorrow there will be a fair bit of rain in the whole of the south of England. Pretty much the same story in the west Midlands but the east Midlands should be getting some much brighter weather by mid-afternoon and indeed this may spread westwards by early evening. But I’m afraid there will be no improvement in north-eastern England and Scotland for a day or so.

6   Listen to this answerphone message for a business.

This is T.J. Smith and Sons. Our offices are currently closed but if you wish to place an order, please state clearly the item, the quantity and the catalogue number and we will deliver it within the next thirty-six hours. We regret that we have been forced to delete all office cleaning supplies from our catalogue as we are no longer able to supply them at the price advertised. If you do wish to make an order, please leave your message after the tone.

7   You overhear two people talking in an office.

M = Man     W = Woman

M:   And, have you heard about Jack?

W:   Yes, he’s had it this time.

M:   It does seem a bit much you know, getting the sack, just for…

W:   He had a whole roll of fax paper in his car.

M:   Well, I think Colin’s being too hard on him. Couldn’t you have a word? I mean, he listens to you.

W:   He doesn’t listen to anyone – least of all me. But I’ll try speaking to him about it.

M:   You’re just siding with the boss, aren’t you? I mean, come on, you’re as guilty as the rest of us. I saw you with that … FADE

8   You hear a parent asking a child to go to the newsagent’s and buy a newspaper.

Ah, Jason, are you going down the road to the newsagent’s? Oh, good. Then you can get a copy of today’s ‘Andover Gazette’. Oh, and if they haven’t got one, get us a copy of ‘Today’, but I’m sure they will because it’s only half past five. So, you’ll be needing forty-three p. and don’t forget to look both ways when you cross the road.

9 life-sized model   10 purpose

11 terrified   12 Catholics

13 must die   14 a tunnel

15 explosive gunpowder

16 approaching danger

17 caught first   18 harmless fun

Audioscripts

Presenter: Every year in Britain, at the beginning of November, schools have a one week holiday and on the fifth of November, many people celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. The celebration centres around the burning of a life-sized model of a man, with a black hat and beard, called ‘Guy’. The model has been specially made for this purpose. It’s a wonderful time for kids of all ages but not so much fun for cats and dogs, which are usually terrified by sounds of exploding fireworks and skyrockets. To understand the reasons for this tradition, we have to go back almost 400 years to a time when there were two important religious groups in Britain – the Catholics and the Protestants. For many years, there had been fighting between them. In 1605, the king, James I, and his government, were Protestants and they made life rather difficult for the country’s Catholics, of which there were many.

According to the popular story, a group of prominent Catholics met secretly and decided that the king and his government must die. They came up with the idea of destroying the Houses of Parliament with explosives. The leader of this gang of conspirators was a man called Robert Catesby. Of course, being well-known Catholics, the group were not trusted by the government and so they needed the help of a professional soldier, who the government officers would not recognise.

The man they eventually found for the job, was Guy Fawkes. After an unsuccessful attempt to dig a tunnel, the conspirators bought a house beside the parliament building, which already had a tunnel going into the Houses of Parliament from its cellar. For many weeks, Catesby and his companions moved huge barrels of highly explosive gunpowder along the tunnel and placed them in exactly the right places under the government building. When the king and his parliament had their first meeting of the year in November, the conspirators planned to explode the gunpowder and so kill everybody in the building. Guy Fawkes had the important job of watching the street outside the conspirators’ house and warning the others of any approaching danger. Well, the king found out about the plot and he sent soldiers to arrest them.

However, they found only Guy Fawkes on duty outside the house. The other conspirators had escaped. Eventually, all the plotters were caught and executed but Guy Fawkes has remained the most famous, probably on account of his being caught first. There was also another result of the discovery of the plot. Afterwards, all Catholics in England were blamed for the attempted attack, and this gave the Protestant government the excuse it wanted to persecute the Catholics even more. Although these events are still celebrated throughout Britain today, Catholics and Protestants have learned to live together in peace and so the celebration itself is mostly harmless fun. Besides, the story is no longer believed by most serious historians.

19 D   20 A   21 B   22 E   23 F

Audioscripts

Speaker 1

This is one of my favourite desserts and it isn’t too difficult if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands. The traditional recipe uses brown sugar but I have always preferred honey. You drip the honey over a thick layer of yoghurt to form a thin covering. This can be quite tricky and you need a steady hand. Then press the fruit into the honey and scatter chopped nuts over the top. Finally, to add that extra special something, put a few pinches of ground cinnamon over it shortly before serving.

Speaker 2

Once you’ve assembled all your chopped fruit pieces in a bowl, you need to make the blancmange mixture to pour over them. This is made by beating together cream, apple juice, honey and two table spoons of rum, and then heating the mixture before dissolving the gelatin. I must just mention that gelatin is made from the hooves of cows so, unfortunately, some people won’t be too keen on this. Anyway, once the mixture has cooled sufficiently, it can be poured over the fruit and left to set in the refrigerator.

Speaker 3

Take the sponge cake base out of the oven and then turn it out to cool on a wire rack. Now, you can turn your attention to the topping. The strawberries need to be fresh so you will only really be able to make this recipe from May to early July; after that, raspberries can be used instead, up to late August. The fruit should be halved and have the tough cores removed. You may need a good sharp knife for this. After that, arrange the halves in a symmetrical pattern around the top of the sponge and finally spread fresh yoghurt over this and garnish with grated chocolate.

Speaker 4

Now, this one is always popular with youngsters. There is really no point nowadays in making your own vanilla ice-cream since the quality in the shops is so good. But home-made chocolate sauce is another matter and quite inexpensive to make. You just heat some cooking chocolate in a pan with a little water and brown sugar and bring to the boil for a few minutes. When it has cooled, you’ll have a thick, dark, sticky sauce that the kids will love … and indeed it’s such a simple method that they could even make it themselves.

Speaker 5

Once again you leave the sponge cake to cool after baking and turn your attention to the marzipan. You will need 250 grams of ground almonds. Now, these are about one pound fifty for a fifty gram packet, so you’ll not want to waste any. Mix the ground almonds with 250 grams of castor sugar and, add a whole egg that’s been thoroughly beaten and laced with dark rum and almond flavouring, knead the mixture into a thick paste and then roll flat on a work-surface sprinkled with icing sugar. Brush the sponge cake with a mixture of rum and almond flavouring before placing the marzipan around it.

24 C   25 A   26 A   27 B

28 A   29 C   30 B

Audioscripts

W = Woman     M = Man

W:   It’s me again … no … no, look, this is no good. I’m talking to you on my mobile and the train keeps going into tunnels and we get cut off. Yes, I know this is important … Look, I’ll phone you again when I get off to change trains at Haywards Heath … Okay then …

M:   Er, … excuse me, did I just hear you say ‘Haywards Heath’?

W:   Well, er … yes … that’s where…

M:   But isn’t this the train for Salisbury – I mean, that’s what it said on the board?

W:   Oh, I think you should have been in the front four coaches. You see, the train divided at Redhill and this is one of the rear four coaches, which goes on to Brighton.

M:   Oh, oh … but that’s impossible, it didn’t say anything on the announcement board. How … how did you know?

W:   They made an announcement, didn’t you hear it?

M:   Er … no. I can’t believe this is happening.

W:   Well, if you don’t believe me, go and ask the guard.

M:   Oh … hang on … If this is the Brighton train, I haven’t got the right ticket. I could end up having to pay extra and I’ve only got plastic, which he won’t accept.

W:   Well, what you could do is get off at the next station and get the next train going back to Redhill. Let’s see, the last one was Three Bridges, so we should be arriving in Balcombe in just a minute.

M:   And I can just get on another train without showing my ticket?

W:   Ah, now that’s a point. That’ll be a bit difficult at a small station like Balcombe. No, what you need to do is get off at Haywards Heath and cross to platform 3 where the northbound trains depart from.

M:   Is that what you’re doing?

W:   Not exactly, I’ll be taking the connecting service to Lewes but I can show you where to go.

M:   Er … look … thanks very much. I really appreciate this. Er … you don’t happen to know if there actually is a northbound train to Redhill at this time of night?

W:   Mmm … I think they run trains all night because of Gatwick airport. But if you like, I could phone through to central enquiries and make sure.

M:   If it wouldn’t be too much trouble. Look, um, I really appreciate this.

W:   No, don’t mention it. Now, let’s see if I can get this thing to work this time.